Collaboration Is Not Coordination: The Secret Ingredient of High-Performing Teams
In our first post, we looked at why so many plans fail in school systems: not because the ideas are flawed, but because the system isn’t designed to deliver them. One of the biggest culprits? How teams work together.
School systems are full of meetings, committees, and cross-functional groups — but activity doesn’t always equal progress. Too often, what passes as “collaboration” is really just coordination: making sure people are updated and tasks are assigned. Necessary? Yes. Sufficient? Not even close.
True collaboration is what turns plans into progress. It’s what allows educators, leaders, and staff to create solutions together that no single department could achieve on its own. And it’s one of the most important — and most misunderstood — ingredients of high-performing systems.
The Meeting Trap
In many school systems, “collaboration” means sitting in a room together (or on Zoom), reviewing updates, and leaving with the same to-do list you brought in.
That’s coordination. It’s important — but it’s not collaboration.
Coordination is about keeping work organized. Collaboration is about creating something together that none of us could have created alone.
Why the Difference Matters
When all we do is coordinate, we share information but rarely change anything about how we work. When we truly collaborate, we solve problems across roles and departments, combine perspectives to spark new solutions, and make better decisions faster.
In education, that difference shows up in tangible ways. For example, the curriculum team tells principals about new pacing guides (coordination) versus: the curriculum team and principals co-design pacing supports based on real classroom feedback (collaboration).
What the Research Says
Harvard researcher Amy Edmondson describes effective, teamwork-oriented problem-solving as teaming — a way of working that can happen any time people come together to tackle a challenge. Successful teaming relies on three conditions:
Psychological safety — people feel comfortable speaking up with ideas, questions, or concerns without fear of judgment.
Shared purpose — everyone is aligned on the same goal and understands why it matters.
Disciplined learning — teams test ideas, reflect on what’s working, and adapt quickly.
Google’s Project Aristotle study found similar results: the most effective teams weren’t the ones stacked with the most individual talent — they were the ones where members trusted each other, knew the team’s goals, and could depend on everyone to follow through.
The Cost of Getting It Wrong
When coordination is mistaken for collaboration, the system quietly works against itself. Departments retreat into their own silos, focusing on their corner of the work without seeing how it connects to the whole. New ideas take longer to emerge — and even longer to gain traction — because there’s no shared space to test and refine them together. Over time, the same challenges resurface again and again, each time wearing a new name but rooted in the same lack of true joint problem-solving.
And students? They feel the inconsistency. A system that isn’t collaborating authentically and purposefully will always deliver uneven experiences from school to school, classroom to classroom.
Three Ways to Build True Collaboration in Your District
Start with a real shared goal: Make sure everyone in the room is solving for the same outcome, not just sharing their own priorities
Build trust through small wins: Early success builds the confidence teams need to tackle bigger challenges together
Design for cross-role problem-solving: Structure meetings so people from different roles actually work together on solutions — not just give status updates
Where Homeroom Fits
At Homeroom, we see collaboration as more than a nice-to-have — it’s the engine that makes ambitious plans possible. When districts create the conditions for real collaboration, teams move faster, silos soften, and educators feel supported instead of overwhelmed.
Our role is to help leaders design for that kind of teaming: aligning people around shared goals, building simple processes that elevate every voice, and strengthening the trust that makes collaboration stick.
When adults in a system truly work together, students feel the difference — in more consistent support, stronger learning environments, and better opportunities to thrive.
Next in the Series: Thinking in Systems: How to Break Down Silos and See the Whole Student Experience